Amber Fate (amberfate) wrote, @ 2004-06-18 01:16:00

Current mood:	calm
Current music:	"With or Without You", U2

offering the fourteenth: the Tower




As shocking as a lightning bolt, the Tower emphasizes sudden, irreversible change. Whether desired or destructive, the querent's life will change, and almost certainly in unexpected ways. This card indicates a period of chaos and disarray, from a simple whirlwind redecorating one's house to the hand of God flattening a small town with a tornado. Anything and everything is possible, good and bad things both, and the only truth in this card is that alteration will occur.

Most readers see the Tower and flinch away, as many flinch away from Death. As the Death card indicates change, however, so does the Tower, and not all that the Tower brings is intended to harm. Granted, 'sudden upheaval' doesn't work for many people. They prefer their revelations small, their disarray minimal, their upheaval periods short.

The Tower denies these desires, bringing change with the force of Thor's hammer, bringing chaos with the sweep of Death's blade. Humility is a part of the process--those who stand against the Tower's force will be brought down, as the Tower itself is seen to fall in most decks. It sweeps all before it in the force of its own collapse--ego, assumptions, ideals, illusions. It reveals the truth hidden under the earth, inside the structure, truths that cannot be revealed in any other way.

The Learning Tarot site says, "Sudden crises are life's way of telling you to wake up. Something's wrong, and you're not responding. Are you too full of pride? Expect a blow to your ego. Are you holding back your anger? Expect the dam to burst. Are you stuck in a rut? Expect a surprise."

The Tower reveals the difference between the jeweler with his small pick and chisel, cracking delicately through the facets of a diamond, and the construction worker with the console and the blasting caps, tearing the past down in large chunks of dust and masonry. There is nothing precise or delicate in how the Tower works. It is blunt, it is charmless, and it will shatter the querent's life completely, leaving that soul free to rebuild as it chooses. It is the flash flood, the forest fire, the tidal wave of consequence, and it cannot be avoided, bargained with, or postponed.

The drastic personal upheavals inherent in this card can be alleviated slightly, but only by total acceptance. The querent must accept that their life will no longer be the same, that explosive, chaotic change is coming their way at speed, and will most likely leave no two sections of the querent's soul paired and in the same place. With this acceptance must come understanding, as well--for the querent was too rigid of thought, too self-important, too filled with grandiose thoughts of their own perfection in the world--else the Tower would not have been drawn in the first place. Whereas Death strikes without warning, the Tower arrives with intent. Accept this intent, prepare for change, and what the Tower brings can be survived.

Deny the Tower, and the querent will watch as every aspect in their life they thought could be relied upon...vanishes into smoke and ash. Deny the driving forces behind the Tower, and the querent might as well try to deny the air breathed in, the water rushing to the sea, the deep tremblors in the earth...and the querent's own daily life. Dreaded or not, change is coming, and all that remains is the call. And whether the querent is awake enough to perceive it.

	theresa_vail 2005-04-11 15:58 (link)
	Hiya! Can I be added please???? (Reply to this) (Thread)

	amberfate 2005-06-16 02:18 (link)
	You're no doubt no longer interested, but, more than a year later, yes...I finally got back to this journal, and this idea, and people here. Argh. Talk about real life attacking with a vengeance. New entries should be up soon. *shakes head* This was ridiculous. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)